The Science of What Happens When We Die

Thornton Wilder - "The Angel that troubled the waters"

Thornton Wilder’s one act play “The Angel That Troubled the Waters,” based on John 5:1-4, dramatizes the power of the pool of Bethesda to heal whenever an angel stirred its waters.

1 John 5:1-4

New International Version (NIV)

Faith in the Incarnate Son of God

5Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

A physician comes periodically to the pool hoping to be the first in line and longing to be healed of his melancholy. The angel finally appears but blocks the physician just as he is ready to step into the water. The angel tells the physician to draw back, for this moment is not for him. The physician pleads for help in a broken voice, but the angel insists that healing is not intended for him.
Angel: "Draw back, physician, this moment is not for you."
Physician: "Angelic visitor, I pray thee, listen to my prayer.
Angel: "Healing is not for you."
Physician: "Surely, surely, the angels are wise. Surely, O Prince, you are not deceived by my apparent wholeness. Your eyes can see the nets in which my wings are caught; the sin into which all my endeavors sink half-performed cannot be concealed from you."
Angel: "I know."
..................
Physician: "Oh, in such an hour was I born, and doubly fearful to me is the flaw in my heart. Must I drag my shame, Prince and Singer, all my days more bowed than my neighbor?"
Angel: "Without your wound where would your power be? It is your very remorse that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In Love’s service only the wounded soldiers can serve. Draw back."
Later, the person who enters the pool first and was healed rejoices in his good fortune then turns to the physician before leaving and said:
"But come with me first, an hour only, to my home. My son is lost in dark thoughts. I -- I do not understand him, and only you have ever lifted his mood. Only an hour . . . my daughter, since her child has died, sits in the shadow. She will not listen to us but she will listen to you."

"Only Wounded Soldiers Can Serve"

In Love’s Service Only Wounded Soldiers Can Serve: Thornton Wilder’s “The Angel The Troubled the Waters”

Published on March 28th, 2009

Written by: Drake

CHARACTERS
THE NEWCOMER, an valid
THE MISTAKEN INVALID
THE ANGEL

SETTING
A great pool of water.

The pool: a vast gray hall with a hole in the ceiling open to the sky. Broad stone steps lead up from the water on its four sides. The water is continuously restless and throws blue reflections upon the walls. The sick, the blind and the malformed are lying on the steps. The long stretches of silence and despair are broken from time to time when one or another groans and turns in his rags, or raises a fretful wail or a sudden cry of exasperation at long-continued pain. A door leads out upon the porch where the attendants of the sick are playing at dice, waiting for the call to fling their masters into the water when the angel of healing stirs the pool. Beyond the porch there is a glimpse of the fierce sunlight and the empty streets of an oriental noonday.

Suddenly the Angel appears upon the top step. His face and robe shine with a color that is both silver and gold, and the wings of blue and green, tipped with rose, shimmer in the tremulous light. He walks slowly down among the shapeless sleepers and stands gazing into the water that already trembles in anticipation of its virtue.

A new invalid enters.

THE NEWCOMER: Come, long-expected love. Come, long-expected love. Let the sacred finer and the sacred breath stir up the pool. Here on the lowest step I wait with festering limbs, with my heart in pain. Free me, long-expected love, from this old burden. Since I cannot stay, since I must return into the city, come now, renewal, come, release.

[Another invalid wakes suddenly out of a nightmare, calling: “The Angel! The Angel has come. I am cured.” He flings himself into the pool, splashing his companions. They come to life and gaze eagerly at the water. They hang over the brink and several slide in. Then a great cry of derision rises: “The fool! Fool! His nightmare again. Beat him! Drive him out into the porch.” The mistaken invalid and his dupes drag themselves out of the water and lie dripping disconsolately upon the steps.]

THE MISTAKEN INVALID: I dreamt that an angel stood by me and that at last I should be free of this hateful place and its company. Better a mistake and this jeering than an opportunity lost.

[He sees the Newcomer beside him and turns on him plaintively]

Aie! You have no right to be here, at all events. You are able to walk about. You pass your days in the city. You come here only at great intervals, and it may be that by some unlucky chance you might be the first one to see the sign. You would rush into the water and a cure would be wasted. You are yourself a physician. You have restored my own children. Go back to your work and leave these miracles to us who need them.

THE NEWCOMER [Ignoring him; under his breath]: My work grows faint. Heal me, long-expected love; heal me that I may continue. Renewal, release; let me begin again without this fault that bears me down.

THE MISTAKEN INVALID: I shall sit here without ever lifting my eyes from the surface of the pool. I shall be the next. Many times, even since I have been here, many times the angel has passed and has stirred the water, and hundreds have left the hall leaping and crying out with joy. I shall be the next.

[The Angel kneels down on the lowest step and meditatively holds his finger poised above the shuddering water.]

THE ANGEL: Joy and fulfillment, completion, content, rest and release have been promised.

THE NEWCOMER: Come, long-expected love.

THE ANGEL [Without turning makes himself apparent to the Newcomer and addresses him]: Draw back, physician, this moment is not for you.

THE NEWCOMER: Surely, surely, the angels are wise. Surely, O prince, you are not deceived by my apparent wholeness. Your eyes can see the nets in which my wings are caught; the sin into which all my endeavors sink half performed cannot be concealed from you.

THE ANGEL: I know.

THE NEWCOMER: It is no shame to boast to an angel of what I might yet do in love’s service were I but freed from this bondage.

THE MISTAKEN INVALID: Surely the water is stirring strangely today! Surely I shall be whole!

THE ANGEL: I must make haste. Already the sky is afire with the gathering host, for it is the hour of the new song among us. The earth itself feels the preparation in the skies and attempts its hymns. Children born in this hour spend all their lives in a sharper longing for the perfection that awaits them.

THE NEWCOMER: Oh, in such an hour was I born, and doubly fearful to me is the flaw in my heart. Must I drag my shame, prince and singer, all my days more bowed than my neighbor?

THE ANGEL [Stands a moment in silence]: Without your wound where would your power be? It is your very remorse that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In love’s service only the wounded soldiers can serve. Draw back.

[He swiftly kneels and draws his finger through the water. The pool is presently astir with running ripples. They increase and a divine wind strikes the gay surface. The waves are flung upon the steps. The Mistaken Invalid casts himself into the pool, and the whole company lurches, rolls or hobbles in. The servants rush in from the porch. Turmoil. Finally the no-longer Mistaken Invalid emerges and leaps joyfully up the steps. The rest, coughing and sighing, follow him. The Angel smiles for a moment and disappears.]

THE HEALED MAN: Look, my hand is new as a child’s. Glory be to God! I have begun again. [To the Newcomer] May you be the next, my brother. But come with me first, an hour only, to my home. My son is lost in dark thoughts. I – I do not understand him, and only you have ever lifted his mood. Only an hour… my daughter, since her child has died, sits in the shadow. She will not listen to us…

END OF PLAY

참고: http://www.mbird.com/2009/03/from-mbird-conference-2009/

Thornton Wilder

Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes—for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey[1] and for the two plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth[2]—and a U.S. National Book Award for the novel The Eighth Day.[3]

Karen Green is the Founder and Director of the Haven of Love ministry. Her personal testimony is a riveting and harrowing one. Karen is a survivor ofchildhood sexual abuse which lead her down a negative path of self-destructionon the streets of Dallas. She experienced her life-changing encounter with theHoly
Spirit nearly 20 years ago, and God began to heal her heart and to
transform her mind, body and soul. Her thought process changed
completely; soonafter her own recovery began. Karen’s faith remains undaunted. Karen has sincededicated her life to the healing and restoration of those trapped in thenegative cycles of self-destruction that physical/mental abuse and drugaddiction can cause. She began going into jails and prisons mentoring to thebroken and lost; testifying about the goodness of God’s love and the power thatthe name Jesus Christ holds. Many lives have since been restored because of herfaithfulness to serve others.

Karen Green-Evans is native of Dallas and a well known speaker of the word ofGod. She is the mother of two adult children, one who is now a powerful youngPastor himself in Kansas city. Karen is a member of the Potter’s House ofDallas, under the leadership of her pastor, Bishop T.D. Jakes. She completedher biblical studies through Christ For the Nations and the Potter's HouseSchool of Ministry. In addition to all of this, Karen has been speaking forprisons, county jails, churches, organizations, conferences, workshops,luncheons and group meetings for well over 15 years.